IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Uh talker Chennight first one to one forecast and of
hostly clouded to partly cloudy day to day, humid and
high eighty one overnight, some clouds sixty four Sunday for
the most part, Tomorrow eighty five, sixty seven Overnight it'll
be humid with a few clowns and a Saturday that's
going to be hot. Humid temperature of eighty five degrees.
Right now, it's seventy time for traffic from the UCL
Traffic Center.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Nearly sixty percent of Americans waiting on an organ transplanter
from multicultural communities give the gift of life, become an
organ donor, or explore a living donation at uce health
dot com. Slash transplant southbound seventy five better through Westchester
still heavy through block on southbound seventy one continues over
a fifteen minute delay from Field Zerbo down to Red Bank.

(00:44):
There's an accident in Clermont County that's on one thirty
one near Betting Lane, backing traffic to Sugar Camp Chucking
Ram on fifty.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Five KOs the talk station TGI Thursday and Hour. Always
look forward to this segment. iHeartMedia Aviation expert Jay Ratliffe
joins us every Thursday at let's say twenty nine right
now or eight thirty roughly this time. Welcome back, Jay Ratliffe.
I appreciate you being on the program, if for no

(01:12):
other reason one, I love the content and I get
a kick out of it. But we don't have to
talk about real politics in that nonsense for a little while.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Good.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
You know, the wild and lucky world of travel, my
friend many times gives us a kind of an uplifting story.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yes, stories, especially.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
At least fun ones sometimes that we could just kind
of say, you know, I'm glad we don't act like that.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
That's like the stack is stupid. In the morning, I
do a twenty minutes still six every morning. And let's
start there. Two stories involving passengers, one that couldn't get
a seat many times and another one got chucked off
a lift tons of flight. So let's start with either
one of those South Southwest Airlines or Lufthansa.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
You pick, Oh, the Lithanso.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
We've got to go there, because my how far we
have come. We had a passenger traveling on a Luthansa
flight boards a plane and as he did, the flight
attendants grew a little bit uncomfortable. They thought maybe there
was something going on, and as a result, they talked
to him saying that they were uncomfortable and expressed their

(02:17):
concerns over whether or not this individual should fly. And
it was because he was wearing a mask. Only because
he was yep, one of the old COVID masks, the
ones you couldn't even go to the bathroom without let alone,
and fly, certainly you had to have. Now we have
situations where a guy boards with a mask and the

(02:39):
flights is like a time out. Here, are you sick?
He's like, no, I'm going to go see my mother.
She's got an immune deficiency and I'm just taking precautions.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
And the flight attendants got concerns to the point the
captain came out. There starts to be a verbal altercation.
The cab goes, look, you're not flying.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
This guy gets kicked.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Off of a plane because he was wearing a mask. Now,
if we've not gone full circle, oh, I cannot find
a better story to illustrate that, damn this one.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
And even though the other story was good, Brian.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
It's nowhere near as good as this. That's near this
against the insanity that was taking place all those years ago,
and just yeah, so now you can get kicked up
the plane for wearing a mask.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
That's funny. Now, if I'd have seen that, my reaction
to seeing a guy get on an airplane with a
mask like that would have been the same as the
reaction I have when I see somebody walking around with
a mask and a Kroger. Still it's that I want
to walk up to him and say, why in the
hell are you wearing that mask? Haven't you read the updates.
It doesn't do a damn thing. It's so far as
keeping you from contracting COVID or any other thing for

(03:48):
that matter.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
Well, before COVID, we would see people traveling with masks
a lot, and sometimes it was because they had an
upcoming surgery or they just had one and they were
told as a precaution to wear them. And there was
a time when everybody thought that those were a good
thing to wear. And then science catches up with everything
and is determined, no, it's not really effective, but it
does sure sure make you feel better, you know, like

(04:10):
you're doing something to protect yourself.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
But yeah, it's you know, so when I see it.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
It's kind of like, well, yeah, well it may be
for a lot of different reasons, but mainly it's because,
you know, people don't want to catch something even though
it's been proven that those things really don't work right.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well, you know, now the public perception is it's all
the left wing agitators and activists, the anti Semites, the
Antifas and others who regularly show up at demonstrations. What
are they wearing the old mask? They're the only ones
that wear them anymore. With the exceptional guy walking around
in Kroger Brian.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
All they have to do to stop that insanity. To
Mark by Noon today is have Trump come out and
endorsed masks. That's all we take because those people would
be like, I'm not doing anything Trump says, and it's over,
it's done, It'll never be seen again.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Problem solved. All right, Let's be get over to the
other story we've got this morning. Three times.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Oh yeah, there was a passenger she's Orlando at a
gate for Southwest Airlines trying to stand by.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Now.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
I don't know if she had a previous flight she missed,
or I didn't know she had a later flight, but
she was trying to leave early, so of course the
summer travel season, I mean, flights are full, so you're
gonna be on a standby. And they tried as best
they could to get this woman on a flight. First
one they couldn't, second one they couldn't, the third one
they couldn't. And I guess it was the third one,
which which was all this woman could take because the

(05:39):
video that's gone viral shows her screaming at this oh,
this poor Southwest Airlines agent, and she gets around the
counter and kicks him, and then you know he's doing
exactly what he's trained to do. He's trying to, you know,
de escalate the situation where he's just backing up with
his hands up, just giving her room, letting her vent
those kinds into things. Well, when she's tired and trying

(06:02):
to kick him, well, then she goes after the computer
and she starts to smashing the computer on the gate counter.
So we don't know if she ended up getting arrested.
I'm certain she got detained, and it'll be up to
Southwest Airlines if any charges are going to be filed,
because typically they're not. But the person would be prohibited
from ever flying Southwest Airlines again.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Ever.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
But again, this type of individual is able to fly
on any other carrier without any problem at all. And
I have a problem with that because if you've assaulted
an airline agent or a fellow passenger, no way in
the world should you be playing on any airplane for
a year or two three, just pick a number. But
so that there's some consequences. But you know, we have

(06:44):
seen some of these situations where passengers come after the
agents and instead of the agent's backing off of their
hands up in a very calm fashion, agents kind of
step forward and put their their fists stuff. It's like, yeah,
don't do that unless you're ready to be fired, because
you know that's not what you're trained to do. Now,
somebody comes after you, you can restrain them, but you

(07:04):
can never ever ever strike a passenger. And you know,
in this situation, it's going to be a training video
on exactly how to handle somebody that has just gone absolutely.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Postal, de escalate or continue with iHeart Mediaviation expert Jay
rattle off quite a few different topics we get to
go through with him. We'll do that in just a minute.
Stick around fifty five KRC. Jay rat left has a
thirty nine on a Thursday talking with iHeart media aviation
expert day or atleft. All right, we got rid of
our unruly passengers and we're moving on over to the

(07:37):
TSA had an announcement about banned items and check luggage.
What aren't we allowed to bring on the plane or
in check in our check luggage?

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Now, Jay, I'm thinking this probably is not going to
impact you or me, But the TSA, through the Federal
av Administration, is saying that they are not going to
allow on the airplane either in check luggage or carry
on cordless curring curling irons or the flat irons that

(08:05):
contain gas cartridges. That's number one. You cannot have buttane
fueled curling irons or the flat irons and the gas refills,
the spare cartridges I believe they are for these curling
irons or the flat irons are also not allowed to
be on a plane, either in check luggage or on
your person. So if you were carrying them through the
TSA checkpoint, and I couldn't pick these things out of

(08:28):
a lineup, So but if the TSA can, so, if
they see it, they would tell the individual that you
are not allowed to take it.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Through.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
If it's discovered in a piece of check luggage, what
they'll do is end up confiscating it and it'll never
be seen again, at least until they auction it off.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Okay, can you can your baggage check like a big lighter.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Lighters?

Speaker 4 (08:51):
You're not supposed to because but again it depends on
the quantity those types of things. So we had a
passenger that was coming out of Las Vegas that matches
and he puts I can't remember how many boxes of
matches in his suitcase and it caught on fire. Now
caught on fire in the baggage staging area, so it
was just the bag that got destroyed. He was fined

(09:13):
by the FAA I think twenty thousand dollars for the
transportation of hazardous materials. So yeah, that's why you just
need to be very, very careful because there's always a
concern of anything that could be combustible, that could be
a problem.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
And that's why these.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Listium batteries continue to be the issue they are because
they represent right now the single biggest threat to aviation
that we have as far as the transportation of a
single attem.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, and you know, every time you talk about there's
lithium eye on things and being in a check bag
down below the hole. I just you know that we're
just a moment in time away from that bringing down
an airplane. Yeah, that really has me bothered.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
Well, it's gonna happen from somebody having a bag up
at the gate for sitting. They have something in there
and of no fault of their own. And because you
know how many times do we forget things all the time,
and you tell people you don't have your car keys,
you don't your medicine, no, no no in the bag.
Off it goes and it's in check luggage only for
the person later go oop, my car keys, my billfold,
my all, my medication is in that bag, which now

(10:20):
gets lost somewhere and it eventually found, you know, days
or weeks later. So those types of things are very
scary because if somebody does the agent, it would be
like screening somebody coming through the TSA saying we'll let
you go through the screener. But if you just tell
us do you have anything now, then you just bypass it,
just go ahead and go. You're taking somebody's word that

(10:44):
there's nothing in there. That would be a potential threat.
Right now, we've gone through the scary checkpoint, so it's
obvious we don't have anything of a threatening terroristic nature.
But these listium battery type things are so serious that
we're simply taking passengers uh you know the words word
for it there and they're not the bags are not

(11:05):
being rescreened. They're going from the gates and you see
them right onto the plane.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right Well, Jay, let me. I mean, I'm certain that
you know when you hand over your bag for them
to check it down below because it's too big. You
know that you're the one that brought the damn thing on,
so it's kind of your fault. But I'm certain that
the flight attendant asks you if there's something in there,
and this is the point at which we have to
rely on the passenger. No, there's no lithium ion product
in there, even if there might be. Does if it was.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
It could be a battery for a toothbrush. This would
be less empowered certain certain things that we just don't
associate with it.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
And you know a lot.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Look, there's people that I know that the whole family
brings their bags through the security checkpoint hoping because they
were gonna have to pay for those check bags at
the counter that the agent says, hey, we're filled. If
anybody wants to volunteer their their check luggage, you know,
we'll check it for free.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
And here comes the family. You know, here's the six bags.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
We will reluctantly give up so you can check them
all for free. And they go and they're like, yeah,
you know, but what if something's missed in there, and
there's just you know, there's a lot of moving parts
at the gate. There's people sometimes at the last minute
that are being cleared for standby that they have bags. Okay,
now we need to you know, we didn't check your
bags because we don't know if we can get you
on the plane. But now we can take them, tag

(12:19):
them and get them down to the to the tarmac
to be put on the plane.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, let me ask you this because it's looming and
burning in the back of my mind when you do
check a bag and it does go in the hold
and you say there's nothing in there. Are they scanning
those X raying them or otherwise they they're just always
taking the passenger's word for it.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Everything. Yeah, and let's and let's there's a reason for it.
But Brian look at it.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
The bags are going from the gate area down to
the end of the jet bridge when you leave the
bags by the door, and some agents coming from the
tarmac up the step.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, that's yeah, that situation.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
I guess it's putting it right onto the airplane and
none of that's being sc now, obviously the check luggage
is all being screened.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
That's what I'm asking about. Yeah, no, I get. I
get what your scenario is because it's going from yeah,
right there at the airplane. It's going from that the
gate and into the plane, but up front, because I
don't know what goes on behind the scenes with bags.
But you're telling me that they are good.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
God, but it took the attacks of nine to eleven
for us to do that.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
I understand.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
After the bombing of Panem one O three over lockerby Scotland,
the National Transportation Safety Board in the late what eighties
said we need to start screening bags, and they said, uh,
I can't do it.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
And when the.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
Attacks of nine to eleven happened, that's when everything changed.
We're thankfully started doing that. So, yeah, those bags are
being screened and a lot of things are being detected
that are threats that they're removing.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
TFC does a very good job on that.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Okay, they don't really telegraph everything that they that they
that they seize, but right it's those bags that are
at the gate to go to the scurity checkpoint.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, I'm with you, and I don't think anything involving
air travel cares me more than that phenomenon that we're
talking about now anymore. This is a new development for
me in terms of my disdain for air travels.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Two incidents a week somewhere in the world, we've got
an aircraft incident with an overheating electronic.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Device in the cabin.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
You can google, yeah, google air boossan I think BUSN
and it shows you an aircraft what's left of it
that was at the gate when a battery fire broke out,
caught the plane on fire.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
The whole top of the airplane's gone.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
I saw that man talk about it. See that's see
right there. That was in the cabin and it did
all that damage. You're in the thirty thousand, thirty five
thousand square feet and that they're one thou thousand feet
in the air and it starts in the hold where
the bags are. Oh my god. Anyway, let's pause. Bring
Jay Ratleff back. We had a few more things to
talk about before we get the hub. The lays stick.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Around fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
There's one more time for the Channel nine weather. We
got most of the partly cloudy day to day human
in eighty one for the high, partly cloudy mile night
sixty fourth to be low eighty five or high Tomorrow
is sunny Sky's overnight sixty seven with just a few
clouds and a humid, sunny and hot day on Saturday
eighty five. For the high, it's seventy one right now.
Get our final traffic report from the UCLP Traffic Center.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Nearly sixty percent of Americans waiting on an organ transplant
from multicultural communities. Get the Gift of Life, become an
organ donor, or explore living donation at uc health dot com.
Slaves transplant southbound seventy one continues over a ten minute
delay from above two seventy five down to Red Bank
northbound heavy is from Smith Edwards towards the Red Bank

(15:32):
Brimp southbound seventy five break blights in and out of
Lackland northbound seventy five out of Earldliner into the cat
Chuck ingramon fifty five krs the talk station.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Say fifty fifty one I fifty five karsde talk station.
A Happy Friday, eve TU check Friday with Dave had
tomorrow at six thirty, like it is every Friday in
the meantime, one more with I heard media aviation expert
Jay Ratliffe. I understand that Air Canada strike was over.
Which impact of what one hundred thousand people or something
like that is Is it dust settled?

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Well, it's a three day strike with the flight attendants resolved,
but the actual number is closer to five hundred thousand passengers. Now,
keep in mind, when you have that many people that
are displaced and most of the flights during the busy
summer travel season are filled, it's becoming next to a
nightmare to try to get all these people to where

(16:27):
they want to go. And when I hear from people
around the country saying, Hey, Jay, you know this is
what's happened to me.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
What options do I have? You know a lot of times,
let's say.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
You're trying to get from here to your vacation in Orlando,
and you can't get there because all the flights into
Orlando are filled. A lot of times, it comes down to,
as you and I've discussed, get me to Tampa, get
me to Daytona Beach, get me to Saint Pete, get
me to you know, some airport close that I can
get to and then I'll drive at my expense to
get so I can begin my vacation as soon as possible.

(16:58):
Or you know you're trying to get back to Cincinnati,
get me a Louisville, Lexington, Date and Columbus, anything close,
even Indianapolis. And when you give the agents that many options,
there's a much better chance they're going to be able
toccommodate you. But look, you've got a family of four
or six they're traveling, and you've got they're trying to
stand by on a flight.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Well, there's only two seats. You're not going to break
the family up.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
So you're waiting for one flight to have six seats
altogether to get everybody accommodated. And the agents are doing
everything they can. The problem is, with all the flights
being filled, there's just not that much of an opportunity
for these displaced passengers to be accommodated.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Right, That certainly makes sense. Ripple effect can't be understated
on that all right, Boeing seven thirty seven number one
aircraft used aircraft in the entire world. Apparently that's not
going to be the case anymore, Jay.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Oh, no, no, no, it's not.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Boeing came out with that nineteen sixty seven or so,
and they've built twelve thousand, two hundred some of them
that have been delivered, and it is it's the workhorse.
Every I think five seconds one's taking off or landing
somewhere in the world. It is the workhorse of the industry.
What was in nineteen eighty eight, Airbus came out with
their A three twenty that was their competitive aircraft, narrowbody

(18:14):
that was supposed to compete with the Boweing seven thirty seven. Well,
air Bus has made twelve thousand whatever they're twenty three
aircraft behind, so they've almost produced as many aircraft as
Boeing as far as that. So now it's going to
be the A three twenty is going to be the workhorse.
But the all time, all time is the DC three

(18:34):
back in the nineteen thirties, the first aircraft to navigate
at night. Sixteen thousand plus of those were made. In fact,
at one time eighty percent of the people that flew
in the world flew onto DC three. So it was
first aircraft navigate at night and blah blah blah, all
the boring things that you know, most people don't care about.
But yeah, that's the mama of them all. As far

(18:56):
as the airplane, that was the biggest workhorse. But Airbus
has really closed the gap. If you think, Boeing has
been building the seven thirty seven since nineteen sixty seven
and Airbus Din starts on nineteen eighty eight, and they
are going to be blown by Boeing here pretty quick,
and it's going to displace the seven thirty seven as
being the workhorse of the industry.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
How about that Times are changing for bowing aircraft. All right,
let's end on the hub delays, which we always do. Jay.
What's looked like out there for air travel.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Well, fortunately the erin is staying off the coast and
that's going to help us quite a bit as far
as hubs that are going to be impacted today, most
of the inclement weather that's really going to hammer some
places is nowhere near a hub. So as a result,
we're going to see those afternoon aggravating pop up thunderstorms

(19:45):
that might delay things thirty or forty minutes. So just
as we had last week, it's going to be a
good day of flying. There's still going to be turbulence
out there, so when you're flying police keep your seat
belts fastened about you. But it's going to be the
day to fly, and if you pick the day, biggest channel,
let's just get to the airport on time. That means
two hours before departure.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
There you go. Jay Ratliffe, always appreciate our conversations and
the time you spend with my listeners to me every week.
I'll look forward to next Thursday and another edition of
the air Traffic Report from you, my friend. Have a
wonderful week and weekend. Okay you thank you sir, Always
a pleasure. Eight fifty five ifty five care City Talk
Station in studio our health experts George Renman and Keith Tennanfield,
great great conversation. Restore Wellness dot Org is where you

(20:26):
find George and Keith some good information on their health
related page. Ken cob Or FOP President City Solicitor for
reasons well, I know it's political, but by what authority
did the city solicitor order the police to charge the
man who got slapped before being beaten down. Still looking
for the authority on that one, but anyway, she did

(20:46):
and they did, so he's been charged. Police museum not
allowed to move to the museum center. Say the museum
center people who can't reconcile the Holocaust or something with
the wonderful message that the Cincinnti Police Museum provides. Plus,
of course, my conversation with Jay Ratliff there fifty five
krs dot com. Tune in tomorrow at least, I hope
you can. Jay are the return of Tech Friday's Dave
Hatter Joe Strecker. Glad to have you back where you blong.

(21:07):
Thank you for what you do. Folks, have a great day.
Don't go wegg Lennbeck's.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Next President Trump made clear that a peaceful resolution was
possible if I Ran agreed to give up its nuclear
weapons ambitions.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Another updates at the top of the hour fifty five
KRZ the talkstation